As Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.” Whether you agree with Narendra Modi or not, you should give him the freedom to say his piece.

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Was Wharton right in cancelling Narendra Modi's keynote address?

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By Manish Sabharwal

There are only three kinds of reactions to Narendra Modi's keynote speech at the annual Wharton India conference. The first is from people horrified that he was invited. The second is from people delighted that this invitation was cancelled. And the third is from people who don't understand why an unsolicited invite that was made and accepted should be withdrawn.

I belong to the third category of people for three reasons:

Diversity: The most amazing part of my time at the Wharton School was the diversity on campus. Unlike IIMs — where 98 per cent of the class is engineers — my class had submariners, fighter pilots, consultants, doctors, lawyers, musicians, farmers, bankers, teachers, etc.

I did not agree with classmates who felt that Indian workers were being exploited in textile factories by being paid $150 per month, but we had a hot debate that led us to agree that needs, wants and desires are different at different stages of development. The genius of Wharton is exposing you to people who do not think like you, look like you, or agree with you. And that is why it changed the size and quality of my thoughts. Whether you agree with Narendra Modi or not, you should hear him.

Freedom: Wharton taught me not to worry about the warmth at the centre of the herd and form my own opinion. It taught me about the human birth defect of cognitive bias, but I also learnt that the only way to escape this was to hear and allow all perspectives. Where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit. And we should all be free to sit and stand where we want. As Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it." Whether you agree with Narendra Modi or not, you should give him the freedom to say his piece.

Keeping Promises: There is an honour in small things like making and keeping promises. But there is particular honour in keeping promises in difficult situations. Once an invite is made and accepted — and nothing changed for the individual between invitation and acceptance — it is better to keep your word. The official conference statement — "as a responsible student body, we must consider polarising reactions" — is unacceptable.

Unacceptable because for leaders — and that is what most Wharton students will be — life after school will mostly involve what Rabindranath Tagore called "Ekla cholo re", or walking alone. This episode could have taught them about walking alone and keeping promises because the farther you get from school, the more you realise the wisdom in "dictum meum pactum", or my word is my bond. Whether you like or agree with Narendra Modi or not, you should honour your unsolicited invite that was accepted.

This episode has interesting lessons for business schools. I finished my MBA in 1996 — arguably high tide in "market fundamentalism" that felt the role of the state should be small or invisible. The global economic crisis has huge implications for the world of business because solving wicked problems like poverty or growing income inequality are not the solving of a sum but the painting of a picture. There is no right answer and you never really finish.

Business schools will have to learn to engage with the messiness and complexity of politics in a way that they never have because MBAs need to understand that public policy is much more complex than corporate strategy. Narendra Modi recently spoke at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi despite formal protest from university teachers who described the invite as "retrograde and deplorable but also displaying a lack of academic mindset". But this event too shall pass; Wharton is a wonderful institution and Narendra Modi is a busy chief minister. Whatever the circumstances of the invite and the subsequent cancellation, there are many lessons here.

I obviously absorbed a key Wharton lesson that dissent is not disloyalty. The rest of the world expects the US to set the standards for tolerance and openness. Obviously, the student organisers of the event have learnt the invaluable lesson that we don't live in an economy but a society. But, hopefully, the more enduring lessons for everybody are about listening and keeping promises.

(The writer, an entrepreneur, is a Wharton alumnus. Disclaimer: He advises the Gujarat government on skills and jobs issues)